[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I started trying to work with treats and she had a pretty aversive reaction. I was basically trying to give her a treat and then mark and throw her frisbee. She did not want to take the treats, but she did reluctantly, then she would not chase her frisbees and she completely shut down (went what I call “floppy fish” – meaning she flopped down on the ground and would not move, so she was pretty uncomfortable. Usually when I get out the frisbees, I can get her out of those bad places, but today it’s like she was suspicious of the whole thing.

If I lose the toys, I will have nothing.

I know I have told you that she is sensitive, but she is on the abnormal/unusual end of the spectrum, so I need to be careful. I worked with someone else just on the training a sensitive dog piece and I don’t want to hijack this thread with someone else’s comments, but I’s be happy to share them with you privately if that would help you.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I think now I finally had the right idea for Winging it. On the one side, she cut behind me a couple of times on the way back to the tunnel. Was my connection not good? I did forget to use her wrap verbals on the middle wing – I was overthinking the rest of it I guess.

Then we did a little with the teeter – first with a hollee roller. She would target it, but I still had to throw it. The I switched to the pepperoni. First one was on the end of the plank and she stopped and ate it. Then I threw the frisbee. Second rep, I tried putting the pepperoni on the table, but that did not work, so I returned to the end of the plank. She seemed to like it, which means nothing – she could spit it out tomorrow, but for today it was a win.

In the past I worked on trying to reinforce the eating with the toy, so it’s not unfamiliar. I just never got her to the point where she was really excited about the food. At least this morning she did actually swallow the pepperoni before I threw the frisbee.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

On the winging it, I TOTALLY misunderstood what I was supposed to do with the middle wing! Now that I understand, I will redo it.

Dellin did her first disc event today, so I think that’s enough work (she probably disagrees). You’d be happy to know that in the “frizgility” game where they do a 3 jump arc, then catch the disc, Dellin did not need any direction on the jumps – I think that qualifies as my Lazy Game for today since I was not really moving 🙂 and I was not close to those jumps either.

Teeter – I can use other toys, she will target them too.

The food remains tough. She does not really have any favorites. She will eat string cheese at her classes, but generally not at home. Hotdogs don’t work. Sometimes I can steal some grilled chicken from Terry and she will take that most of the time, but if she sees it more than once or twice in close proximity, then it loses it’s attraction. I bought a few slices of pepperoni today to try out with her. Usually my dogs love deli meats, but Dellin is harder – it has been a long time since I’ve tried these kinds of meats. As ridiculous as it sounds, she likes Zukes type treats more than most things. I have some freeze dried stuff that she has not seen in a while, so that might work. Everything is pretty short lived in terms of keeping her interest. She takes treats better at class than at home – I think because her arousal is up and sometimes it’s like she’s redirecting on to the treats and will get a little chompy (she otherwise takes treats very gently).

I can continue to try other things. I thought she was liking watermelon – I was handing it out to everyone yesterday and she eagerly eats when everyone is getting treats. Today by herself I gave her a piece of watermelon and she took it, spit it out, studied it and then ate it. So there’s no speed to the eating. She eats her meals well, but I think that is helped by context – everyone else is super pumped and eating fast. I prefer not to use her meals for training because it took a long time to get her to eat her meals at mealtime and we are in a good place with that (they are also raw and messy).

She also tends to like crunchy treats, so not the best for training, but if she actually likes them, then maybe I should revisit that. Or maybe she’s just taking them because the other dogs are!

I will work on the food rewards with the plank. Would I still throw the cookie or hand it to her and then throw a toy?

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I was trying to implement your suggestions for Winging it, but I must have been doing something wrong – we seemed to have some struggle – so my movement must not be correct. The first 2 felt pretty good, but I was not sure if it was too much like yesterday’s reps. One way was easier (for me anyway). I left in the ones where we did not get the middle wing so you could see.

Teeter – same set up but letting her drive ahead to the frisbee at the end.

Then some plank games – raised the plank a little, used “search” to find the cookies and did some turning around. She was like, why are you trying to stop me – I walk now. And must I eat this cookie? A little judgey. The space is pretty small, so I can see why she’s not running – nowhere to go. The plank weighs a ton, so taking it outside is a pain, but I can do it. Or take a plank off the dog walk to use.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

As it was BC yesterday (before coffee), I did not even realize I had done the spin until I looked at the video again. Out early this morning again, but had one cup of coffee beforehand! I added on to the Winging It using that center wing. I was trying to focus on turning my shoulders to get that tight turn and only taking the one step to send. I knew she could handle it after seeing her get that one jump send on Sunday going to the serp at the seminar.

Thanks for setting me back on the path with the teeter. I changed the set up this morning and we just worked on going up. I think having the table the remakes so much more sense for her than the plank to nowhere. There’s a tiny bit of give on the plank – I had to find props that were the correct size and brace the yoga mats under the one end.

Then we moved on to the lazy game. I know she just wanted to blast around and do the 3 jumps and was looking at me like why are you not running? You always run. A little judgey, but we are not the type that meander 🙂 I was not sure if you were looking for a slower type of movement. I was saying “toss” (hard to hear) which is her marker that means I’m throwing the toy/friz right to you at close range. In the time off between sessions 2 & 3, we did some bend grids, so she knew that shape meant go take them all, but I was not acting quite right.

Tonight in the nice cold basement, we did the first 2 baby steps of plank confidence. And for Dellin, this is about as much enthusiasm for cookies as you will ever get. It looked pretty normal. Edited out some chewing time, but she did have ones where she was right back. I knew if I did this outside, the likelihood of her looking for cookies in the grass is about zero (and then my Lab would spend her entire training time doing nothing but finding them). Tradeoff was the bouncing on the mats. I realize I was quiet – I was not sure what to say, so just shut up and let her chase the cookies.

Off topic and not part of class, but thanks – we now have a 12 pole wide open channel on the weaves.

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

Hope you had a safe trip back to the South from what I now call the Sub-Saharan Tundra! Great to see you this weekend – we had so much fun and learned a ton! Very proud of the baby dog at her first seminar 🙂

We got out early am for baby steps on the Wing send. I think a couple of times I used the wrong wrap cue (this was pre-coffee).

Then I wanted to show you where we are at with the teeter. I had bought the Independent Study class and the first game I did was the Mountain Climber and she had a bad reaction. She did it once and then basically would not get on the plank again and quit – just laid down and would not come near it. She would still bang the end and hop on to the end position.
And she won’t eat cookies when she’s worried (or when she’s not worried, lol), so no amount of cookies at the end of that teeter was going to help.

At that point for the up, I went back to the plank in the basement. I had to start with it flat – any elevation made her instantly suspicious. Then we gradually tilted it up – on a Cato board, then 2 Catos, then something a little higher, finally working up to a 16″ table and she was happily running up and down.

I kind of abandoned the Mountain climbers after all that rehab since I knew class was going to have some teeter games. The video shows where we are at. She will work for her frisbees and she’s bringing them back and offering getting on. So I’ve been letting her do this back and forth to get comfortable since it had many elements present – the banging, some up and some down.
But now I feel like I need to get back to a plan. Some sessions, we’d just do 1 rep per some of your lectures on the effectiveness of one rep and then play frisbee. Now she’s more comfortable and it’s her choice to offer the behavior, not me asking. It’s not strictly a one rep to one frisbee toss either- I mix it up so sometimes there are a couple of frisbee throws. And I’m really trying o be mindful of not coercing her to do it and letting her opt in.

I tried to replace the 16″ table with a 24″ table and that was a bit too much. I think we can progress a little from the 16″ table, but I need a more gradual progression.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I think it was 40 last week, now 80 and a tornado watch, so train agility! Being from the East coast, I don’t know if the watch is the bad one. LOL. We survived.

Back to the lap turns since it’s out of my comfort zone. Left in the boo boos from that first side with one wing.

When I went to 2 wings, I tried to do less running backwards! She has some serious wide outruns around those wings which is unusual for her – was my arm flinging all over??

Question on Max Pup 3 – I saw you posted that it was full. I have not signed up yet – I wanted to do basically what I’m doing now as the live dates mostly don’t work for me- so I’d watch those on video and then post my video for you. Is that still available?

Thanks!

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

Thanks for that – on the serp, I could definitely see the problem especially with the toy in arm in the serp hand.

Today we did the baby steps of the Lap Turns – one wing, then 2. She did not have many mistakes and I could see that I was crowding the jump when it did happen.

Then we revisited the lateral lead out. I did a couple of refresher reps to start with just the wing. Then we used 2 jumps. She did really well, so I tried the next step of me moving towards the middle of the bar. She did well on those too.

My issue was trying to keep straight which arm I was supposed to use (I did watch the video again and then I get outside and can’t remember anything). I think some of my problem was the toy and trying to hold it in my throwing hand. When I did the throwback at the end, the hands made more sense…

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi!

UGH, Sorry- here’s both sides of the serp dialed way back. I have a tendency to get stuck in training and not make things harder, so here was the one time I moved too fast. Redo on both sides:

We also got back to the Get Out -bar on ground is 10′ from jump. I started a little closer and tried to stay out.

We tried the lap turns this morning too in the basement which went well. We’ll try them outside tomorrow.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy!

It’s finally decent here. I got out tonight and worked on the backside proofing on the left side. I had the wings at an angle and put the bar down with one wing. She did great and I guess I did not hit record, so no video.
Then I revisited the serpentines because they really need work 🙂

First 2 reps were easy, so I adjusted the jump, then 4 reps there and I adjusted it again to pretty close to straight. That’s when she started to run by on some of the reps. At the end, she was starting to get it. Not sure if it was just too much motion – I felt like I was looking at her and connecting over the bar, but motion is hard!! I think we have made some progress – letting it sit for a while was good.

Sorry about the camera angle not being super wide – hopefully you can see enough. I was mostly throwing the toy since it was hard to see when it was just dead in the grass.

Thanks,
Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

I tried to get out between rain showers and it started to rain on us. lol

Thanks for the description of the classes. The teeter one sound like it would be appropriate for us at this age.

I wanted to make sure I got the set up broken down correctly for the backside proofing and that I’m walking in the correct place. She did much better – only got me once where she cut in front of the wing.

We tried the countermotion in the basement early this morning and it went much better, so I tried it outside. I’m still moving slowly, but changing my focal point helped a lot. Good grief, I was all over the place with toy throws – hit her in the head, knocked the bar down… Despite all of that, it went better than yesterday.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

I left the blooper reel out on that lateral lead out – she was coming on the diagonal to the wing without taking the jump on that one side. I’ll have to get back out to see if it’s all sorted out.

Today I beat the rain by an hour and managed to do the Backside Games. I left some of the ugly in there for you to see – we have the BC outrun by the jump without taking it as well as taking the front side. I thought I had pretty hard connection with her, but it seemed like, at best, I could only walk the path ring to the wing. If I tried to move at all in the direction of the center of the bar, she took the front side.

She did ok on the counter motion, she got me once, but I felt like I had to go in slow motion. I could probably do this one again the basement right now since we aren’t really moving.

Question about Max Pup 3 – how much of the teeter process does it cover? Just the beginning steps? I was thinking about doing the independent study teeter class during the downtime (like there’s downtime with a puppy – haha). She’s going to be 18 months old has been exposed to the teeter when younger, had no problems, but it’s time to start doing some actual stuff and my window is small to try to get things done (if the weather ever improves). Can any of the beginning teeter games can be done inside?

Also wondering if there was any luck finding my “old” classes – was hoping to get access to the running dogwalk class that Didi took.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be a wash out, so fingers crossed it does not rain all of Sunday too.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi Tracy,

It’s been another challenging weather week! UGH!! And it’s supposed to rain all weekend, so trying to get some quick training in. And yes, still wearing a down jacket in April 28th. Seriously.

Here’s the baby steps of the Lateral Lead Out. She did great on the first reps when she’s on my left. She really struggled initially on my right, so I had to dial it way back and only go about halfway to the wing or she would not take the jump. By the end of the session, she had worked through it and I was able to stand at the wing.

I hope to watch the class video and do a little more homework before the rain comes.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Good morning,

In between rain showers, we got out for a few minutes yesterday.

On the grids above – she must have weight shifted – she did not break any of her starts – I am so far away that it’s impossible to hear anything. And its hard to see from the end of that one long grid! I try not to let any obvious vulturing go on at the start.

We have done several of the foundation bending grids, but probably jumped ahead too far. That spacing might not be right for her. And the ground was not perfectly flat either. I need to go back to the minny pinny too for the work on the directionals. The weather has been a huge impediment this term.

Threadles – The other day I was using the wing wrap verbal – too windy to hear me I think.

We tried the threadle again – still hard and there were errors. I rewarded everything that did not involve going into the wrong end of the tunnel. On the reps that went better, I did remember to keep moving. When we had too many incorrect reps in a row, I sat her at the exit to the wing to cut out that bit of motion. Work in progress – I feel like she does not know the word yet.

Hopefully we can get out a bit later today and try some other games.

Thanks,

Joan

[agilitywawa]

Hi,

Finally! a day that is not raining, snowing or blowing 30 MPH wind. Back to rain tomorrow apparently.

We had some grids in the yard, so I took advantage of that. Set point (14″), what was supposed to be variable distance grid, but I left the final jump 15′ from the grid, bar at 14″ (6′ between regulator jumps), and a circle grid (jumps at 10″). I know the circle is hard for them – this is the first time she has seen it, so we had some mistakes, but I did not want to do more than 4 reps.

With the exception of the circle, I’m like a mile away dragging a toy on a leash.

Set Point:

Grid:

Circle grid:

Then I tried to do the Smiley Face Threadle Game. Yikes. Motion kills. And she was probably a little fatigued, so I had to dial it way down – she kept going in the tunnel in front of her. I left in some of the mistakes for you to see since I must be doing something wrong (it looks like I am not moving on the incorrect ones) or maybe we need to be at a no motion step – after the first couple of incorrect reps, I just sat her at the exit of the wing and worked from there. If I send her around the wing, she does not slow down because I am walking.

Thanks,
Joan

[Author]

Posts